The Department of Education (DepEd) has issued revised policy guidelines on Homeschooling Program to provide substantive guidance on its implementation beginning next school year.
Signed by Education Secretary Leonor Briones, the DepEd Order No. 1, series 2022 entitled “Revised Policy Guidelines on Homeschooling Program” also discussed underlying principles, objectives, and target learners related to the said program.
Briones, in the DepEd Order dated Jan. 21, said that the revised policy guidelines on the Homeschooling Program are consistent with its mandate “to establish, maintain and support a complete adequate, an integrated system of education relevant to the needs of the people and society.”
The revised guidelines, DepEd said, were guided by the constitutional directive to “support the natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and development of moral character.”
DepEd said that Homeschooling Program is designed as one among the Alternative Delivery Modes (ADMs), which may be offered by any public or private school as a “response to the needs of learners who cannot regularly report to school due to medical conditions, family situations and difficult circumstances that require more regular parental support and supervision.”
The Homeschooling Program, DepEd explained, is also for learners whose parents “opt them to be educated at home by themselves.”
The program, DepEd added, actualizes Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 4 which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education with “parents taking full responsibility for the education of their children.”
DepEd explained that the Home Schooling Program offers families “flexibility in deciding and addressing their children's access issues.”
The program also provides an opportunity for them to “contribute to making the curriculum learner-centered, inclusive, developmentally-appropriate, responsive and relevant, while applying pedagogical approaches that are constructivist, inquiry-based, reflective, collaborative and integrative.”
Aside from providing substantive guidance on the implementation of the Homeschooling Program, DepEd said that the revised policy guidelines also define the program standards which include program management, the curriculum, learning delivery modalities, parent/guardian as a learning facilitator, learning resources, learning environment and classroom assessment to be used.
“Implementation protocols and procedures are also described to guide the field implementation,” DepEd said.
Briones said that the DepEd Order shall take effect beginning school year (SY) 2022-2023.
This, DepEd said, shall be registered with the Office of the National Administrative Register (NAR) at the University of the Philippines (UP) Law Center in UP Diliman, Quezon City.